If you want to know about rising-star winemakers, who better to ask than producers in the same region who have been at the vanguard for decades? We invited 10 major names in Italian wine to highlight their pick of the top up-and-coming producers in their respective regions
Italian wine is in full swing. While the leaders of the quality revolution of the 1980s and 1990s are progressively passing the baton to the next generation, new faces are also rising to prominence. Whether they are modernising family businesses or starting from scratch; whether they have studied oenology or have a different background – for all of them, the challenge today is the market, unstable and moody, marked by a radical change in eating habits and by a young public disaffected with wine. Not even the climate offers certainty to those whose ceiling is the sky.
A possible solution could be provided by biodiversity: olive groves and cereal plantations often grow next to vineyards. Wine is no longer the undisputed protagonist, and even the role of the oenologist consultant is reduced: new winemakers often create their own wines, taking on the risk of their own choices. The trend of the new generation is towards fresh and pleasant wines, without compromising complexity and elegance; a result achieved thanks in part to refinement in materials more neutral than wood, such as concrete and clay amphorae, which better preserve the pure expression of the terroir.
Below, 10 major names in Italian wine point to the rising star in their respective region – for once, the arduous task of predicting the future is left to the interpreters themselves, not to journalists! This article is also another sign of the times: even the world of wine, once egocentric and competitive, seems increasingly open to dialogue and comparison; an encouragement to the new guard. And the winery is…
PIEDMONT
Serralunga d’Alba
Nominated by Massolino
Winemakers in Piedmont have passionately experienced the changes and developments in the world of viticulture over the last 40 years, attributing a strong cultural value to wine. In the Langhe region of the 1990s, the intense confrontation that arose between ‘traditionalists’ and ‘modernists’ led to the well-known ‘Barolo wars’, which are now the stuff of novels and screenplays. Today, the waters are calmer, but Roberto Massolino, co-owner of the successful Massolino winery in Serralunga, which established itself in those years of turmoil, weighs his words carefully when he talks about the future: ‘I still focus on Barolo wine, especially on its sub-zones to be rediscovered
